Football fans in Cornwall weren’t accustomed to celebrating success for their local sides, but Perran Trevelyan and his exciting young Truro City squad were slowly putting a dent in that mindset. The Tinners gave their Cornish supporters a Wembley trip to remember as they lifted the FA Trophy on penalties two years on from winning Vanarama National South.
Another summer rebuild was in store as Truro bid farewell to retiring striker Lyle Taylor and winger Michael Jacobs, while Scott Burgess, who’d contributed 42 assists in the last three seasons but wasn’t good enough for this level, Wembley penalty hero Ben Crompton and 15 youngsters were released. The good news was tycoon owner Richard Mukherjee had given him a wage budget hike to £17k per week and a transfer budget of £190k, with £783k in the bank coming into the 2026/27 campaign. However, they soon lost star defender Jack Tierney to Stockport for a club record £29,500.
Trevelyan improved on those departures, led by former Spurs and Brentford midfielder Paris Maghoma. He also focused on big team cast-offs to bring in Chelsea centre backs Liam Forster and Chukwuebuka Wakili, 6ft 5in Arsenal centre back Ackeel Skeete and Man United winger Jordan Hellawell. However, a slightly frustrating transfer window followed as several targets went elsewhere, even to teams in the league below with much bigger wage budgets. He eventually continued his focus on experienced leaders by signing former Bolton cult hero striker Gary Madine and loaned in promising Shrewsbury striker Charlie Maxwell and Bolton centre back Ben Hammond.
With the squad reshaped, Trevelyan decided to again change formation away from last season’s 4-4-2. They’d lost their wide men in favour of central midfielders, so he moved towards either a narrow 4-1-3-2 or a 3-5-2 given their new-found mass of centre backs.
Third Season In National League
The bookies have boosted their expectations of Truro, predicting a 9th-place finish with 13/1 title odds. Forest Green remain favourites at Evens to win the league followed by Gateshead (7/2), Rochdale (4/1), Oldham (9/2), Woking (5/1) and Sutton (6/1). While striker Jaden Williams is the third-favourite to be the league’s top goalscorer.
Truro began Trevelyan’s fourth season with a trip to Barnet, who they beat to win silverware in the final game of last season, and Forster and centre back Maxwell both scored on debut to earn a 2-2. Another draw followed with a 0-0 at home to Gillingham before losing 1-0 at Hartlepool, so scoring goals appeared to be a problem. But that changed at home to Oldham as Trevelyan switched to the 4-1-3-2. Maghoma laid on two goals in a 5-2 victory thanks to Maxwell’s late double off the bench and they won 5-2 again next time out at Wealdstone with Jaden scoring two early on.
The formation change continued to work nicely, including homegrown star and new club captain Sammy Raybould scoring his first senior goal in his 82nd appearance to lead a 2-0 win at Scunthorpe and Madine bagging a hat trick, including two penalties, in a 3-0 win at lowly Eastleigh. A 2-1 defeat at home to Forest Green followed before a new league record high scoring game with a 5-3 win at home to Altrincham and a 2-0 defeat at 3rd-place Boston. A really strong December followed, ending with a 1-0 win over 2nd-place Hartlepool – which took Truro top of the National League for the first time.
More Cup Excitement And First Premier League Opponent
Truro’s cup heroics were in full force again as Maghoma scored the only goal in the FA Cup first round at home to League One Stevenage and Jaden stepped up with a brilliant four-goal haul to down League Two Mansfield 4-1. Another disappointing third-round draw saw them get Bournemouth at home. But the now Championship team played a league game three days before, rotated, completely underestimated their opponents and found Tom Wooster in inspired form, making 5 saves to keep them out while Jaden turned home Raybould’s low cross on 53 minutes. And this was a deserved win, as Truro had more xG and more possession to defeat a top-tier club!
That win set a new gate receipts record of £80k, less than the £107k for reaching the fourth round for the first time. Another annoying draw followed at home to Brentford, and they unsurprisingly lost 5-1 – but the game was on live TV, earning a bit more money. Brentford went on to reach the semis, only losing to Arsenal on penalties. However, Truro’s FA Trophy defence didn’t go well as they lost on penalties to Forest Green in the fourth round.
Trevelyan Eyes A Promotion Push
With the cup distraction out of the way, Trevelyan was fully focused on maintaining Truro’s push to the top of the National League. They annoyingly lost Forster to Blackpool for £37,500 on deadline day, but luckily he returned on loan for free. Truro got over the Brentford disappointment with striker Daniel Oyetunde and Wakili earning a 2-0 win at 6th-place Rochdale before losing 1-0 at 3rd-place Sutton and Aldershot. But Jaden got them back on track, scoring the only goal at home to Halifax then both goals at Dorking.
That saw Truro move 8 points clear at the top with nine games remaining. The improving Oyetunde nicked a late winner at Torquay, Maghoma secured a 2-1 win at home to Macclesfield and Maxwell’s late header edged a 1-0 at Dagenham, who kicked Oyetunde out of the rest of the season. Midfielder Max Lott inspired a 2-1 at home to Eastleigh, which saw Truro set a new club record six successive wins that ended with a creditable 0-0 at 5th-place Forest Green. That left Truro six points clear of Hartlepool, who’d won 11 of the last 12, in what was realistically a two-horse title race.
Game 1 – Boston United (3rd, home): Truro City’s quest to reach the Football League began with a huge game at home to Boston. But those hopes took a blow as they put in a poor performance and lost 2-1, while Hartlepool scored a 93rd-minute winner at Braintree.
Game 2 – Altrincham (8th, away): A week later, another potentially tricky game took them to Altrincham. Trevelyan threw Madine in for a rare start and played more direct football, which worked a treat as the big man bagged twice in a 2-1 victory. Hartlepool beat Woking to record a 9th successive victory and stay 3 points behind with two to play.
Game 3 – Accrington (21st, home): Truro could secure promotion in their final home game. Truro started well without finishing chances, but Hartlepool didn’t as they trailed 2-0 at Solihull after 30 minutes and capitulated to 4-0 down after an hour. However, completely against the run of play, Truro also went behind after 69 minutes and lost 1-0. That technically took the title fight to the final day with Hartlepool needing to win and Truro to lose with an 11-goal swing.
Game 4 – Gateshead (13th, away): Potentially the best season in Truro history ended with probably its longest journey as they trekked 439 miles from Cornwall to Gateshead in the northeast. And, understandably, only 13 away fans made the trip! Truro again bossed the game but couldn’t finish, before being given a helping hand as Williams’ shot was harshly awarded as an own goal after an hour.
Truro City won the Vanarama National League and became the first Cornish club to reach the English Football League!
Truro won the title by 3 points, finishing on 94 points after 28 wins, 10 draws and 8 defats, scoring 84 and conceding just 39. Jadenm was the 4th-top scorer with 18 in 45 and Wooster had the 3rd-most clean sheets with 15. League favourites Forest Green again lost out in the playoffs and Boston joined Truro in League Two.
Celebrating An Unexpected Promotion
Trevelyan was beyond delighted with the efforts of his young squad. They’d defied all expectations to take the National League by storm and win the title on the final day. Jaden again led the goalscoring chart with 25 goals and 6 assists in 51 games, but really struggled at the end of the season, while Oyetunde scored 16 with 9 assists in 40 games. But a surprise star man was Lott, who scored 13 with 13 assists in 50 games, along with Maghoma’s 6 goals, 13 assists and club-high 7.19 average rating.
Truro also had a strong youth intake to get excited about led by Irish centre back Drew Meyler and Angolan midfielder Manuel Boavida, while Swedish midfielder Derrick Aheebwa was one to watch.
The title win completed Trevelyan’s initial mission to make Truro City Cornwall’s first Football League club. But he was far from done there as he looked to lead his hometown club to even greater heights.
Could Trevelyan strengthen his Truro squad to survive in their first taste of the EFL? Join us next Wednesday to find out!
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